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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Mull it Over Monday: Art 24 hours, 7 days a week, is this healthy?

I think or do art 24/7. Sound familiar? The roses in the front yard don't just demonstrate my husband's new found ability to prune-- they are reference material and that thing I want to do with the color red. I'm the distracted wench with the camera at____________ (Fill in the blank, all events, locals anytime are correct.) When I'm in art mode which is almost always, I'm sourcing material, seeking counsel, assesing venues for sales and percolating ideas for future work. It annoys, it excites and it can be exhausting. ...in quiet moments I wonder if life is much bigger than my artist filter brain is computing but it's hard to disconnect...and I'm not sure I want to. Stapleton Kearns wrote about it here. I love that he makes no apologies for art 24/7. Outside of my dedicated art activities, I've managed to keep the rest of my life pretty simple. While I'm not one of those people who believes being "happy" is the end-all or even necessary for a worthwhile life. Yet, I manage to feel happy fairly often. There's this idea that a sacrifice is somehow necessary to have what we want...
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Do you believe that "you can't have your cake and eat it too?" That rare time in the studio when we know we're creating something beautiful or meaningful is worth gold to many of us. Many artists gladly sacrifice wordly resources, cash money and amazing effort to have that time. Despite occasional second thoughts Art 24/7 does seem to be a way of life here... personally I don't feel like I've sacrificed all that much... Have you sacrificed something for your art??

Same here, Diane. I spent all weekend alone in my studio (well, I spent 1/2 hour getting a (nother) new camera to photograph my art for my blog!) with Paco. When I spoke to my sister at the end of Sunday she asked what I did all weekend, I said "I was working. In the studio. All day, both days.." And before I could say how heavenly it was she said "Oh, too bad..."... I was taken aback - NO! It was WONDERFUL! The time just flies and even when I'm struggling, it's JUST what I want!

Wow! You've hit upon it exactly! I never feel like I've sacrificed anything for my art. But I often feel as though I sacrifice my time for art to do other things. My studio is my happy place and creating is what keeps me sane.

Thanks for this post, Diane! I feel like I should farme it or send it to my family members so they can see that I'm not the only one who thinks and lives this way! The link to Stapleton kearn's post was fascinating. I'm amazed at how much it described me. Yes, I do make some sacrifices, such as staying in my studio, working on something that needs to get done rather than go outside and enjoy the beauty and doing computer work in the evenings rather than just relaxing. I love all of it though, well, not the computer stuff so much, but it's all so much better than having a regular job and trying to fit my art in on the weekends.

Thanks so much for commenting everybody... I had a feeling I wasn't the only one-- I actually wrote so much more than this post, heh. I found myself almost trying to justify my art-all-the-time and it was too much and probably not that interesting, really. This is the "edited-way, way DOWN" version. So your feedback is especially gratifying. Thank you!! (Kelley, I hope you took my advice and got the Cannon G12, it ain't cheap but worth every dime.)

I am Diane Hoeptner
(hep-ner) an artist living in rural Northeast Ohio. You'll find my new paintings
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